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Coachella Valley electricity use stayed flat in 2014

Coachella Valley residents aren't great at saving energy — but they're not getting worse, either. An analysis of energy use data by The Desert Sun shows that valley residents used roughly the same amount of electricity in 2014 as they did in 2013, even though 2014 was a warmer year. Across the Coachella Valley, average residential electricity use increased by half a percentage point in 2014.

Coachella Valley electricity use stayed flat in 2014

The Agua Caliente Reservation spreads across more than 31,000 acres in a checkerboard pattern that includes parts of Palm Springs, Cathedral City and Rancho Mirage.(Photo: Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun)Buy Photo

A Desert Sun analysis of energy use data shows that valley residents used roughly the same amount of electricity in 2014 as they did in 2013, even though 2014 was a warmer year. Across the Coachella Valley, average residential electricity use increased by half a percentage point in 2014.

Some cities fared better than others. Rancho Mirage residents, for instance, decreased their average electricity use by about 1 percent, with Palm Springs and Cathedral City residents also lowering their consumption. In Desert Hot Springs, meanwhile, average consumption increased by about 4.7 percent, while residents of Indio and Coachella increased their electricity use by 1.4 percent.

Across Southern California, residential electricity use by Edison customers stayed flat in 2014, hovering at about 566 kilowatt-hours per month. That compared to about 870 kilowatt-hours per month in the Coachella Valley — a sign of the valley's high air condition use.

Changes in electricity use

The Desert Sun analyzed changes in electricity use for each city in the Coachella Valley, calculating the percentage change in average residential consumption from 2013 to 2014.

Chart: Sammy Roth, The Desert Sun

Note: City data is approximated from ZIP code data, and ZIP codes don't always align perfectly with city boundaries. The data also doesn't include electricity generated by rooftop solar panels.

Chris Jones, a UC Berkeley researcher who focuses on energy and the environment, said average residential electricity use has seen a "very slow progressive decline" in California over the past few years, but with annual fluctuations based on weather. In the Coachella Valley, higher temperatures generally necessitate more air conditioning, leading to greater electricity use.

Based on Palm Springs weather data, the desert experienced a 10 percent increase in "cooling degree days," a measure of how frequently air conditioning is needed, in 2014. In that context, the valley's roughly 0.5 percent increase in electricity use could be seen as a minor accomplishment.

Still, other factors could be at play. The relationship between temperatures and electricity use is "not linear," Jones said, with other factors — including economic conditions, income levels and home sizes — also impacting energy use.

Imperial Irrigation District customers were responsible for the vast majority of the Coachella Valley's half-percentage-point increase in electricity use last year. Valley residents served by the Imperial Irrigation District increased their electricity use by nearly 1 percent on average, while Southern California Edison customers increased their consumption by just one-tenth of a percentage point.

Still, it's possible that the changes from 2013 to 2014 — between different cities and different utilities — are little more than statistical noise. David Song, a spokesman for Southern California Edison, called the small changes between 2013 and 2014 "statistically insignificant."

The state's major investor-owned utilities — Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric — have all proposed a dramatic restructuring of their electricity rates. Under Edison's plan, the number of tiers would be reduced from four to two, with below-average energy users paying much more for electricity than they do now. Above-average energy users, meanwhile, would see their costs fall substantially.

Utilities have framed the proposed changes as a matter of equity, arguing that high-usage customers are paying more than their fair share — and that low-usage customers aren't paying enough.

"SCE's proposal gets the rates closer to their cost of service," Edison said in an emailed statement.

Critics, though, have said the proposed changes would limit the incentive for excessive energy consumers to conserve. Lower rates for high-usage customers could also make rooftop solar and expensive energy-efficiency measures less cost-effective in wealthy communities like Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells, critics say.

"If you switch to a rate that's less attractive for those alternatives, that could be a real problem," Jones said.

Still, Jones added, it's possible that high-end electricity users are paying more than they should be right now.

"It could be true that those rates are abusively high or too high, and it may be the case that those alternatives are still going to be very, very attractive," he said.

Edison didn't deny that the proposed changes could give high-end electricity users less incentive to conserve. Rather, the utility argued, the restructuring would lead to "an overall reduction in consumption."

"While higher usage customers will see a rate reduction (though their rates will still be higher than low-usage customers), charging lower-usage customers their fair share will encourage them to use energy more efficiently as well," Edison said in an emailed statement.

A previous Desert Sun analysis of energy use data showed that residents of eight of the valley's nine cities used far more electricity than they should have in 2014, relative to local electricity use predictions developed by researchers at UC Berkeley. That's an indication that residents of those cities could have done a lot more to save energy. Only Cathedral City residents used less energy than expected, the data showed.

The new analysis compares those numbers with data for 2013, which Edison and the Imperial Irrigation District provided to The Desert Sun upon request.

Overall, residents served by the Imperial Irrigation District use much more electricity than those served by Southern California Edison. Irrigation District customers in the Coachella Valley used 30 percent more electricity than their Edison counterparts in 2014, The Desert Sun has found.

The reason, experts say, is that the Imperial Irrigation District charges so much less for electricity than Southern California Edison does. According to an analysis conducted by the Imperial Irrigation District last year, a district customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours per month pays about $133 — compared to $225 for a similar customer served by Southern California Edison.

Sammy Roth covers energy for The Desert Sun. He can be reached at sammy.roth@desertsun.com, (760) 778-4622 and @Sammy_Roth.